Engine issue a mystery for Slade, PremiAir

A mysterious engine problem for Tim Slade has left PremiAir Nulon Racing scratching their heads after Sunday morning practice at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.

It has been a strong weekend so far for Slade, who topped the opening segment of Boost Mobile Qualifying yesterday, before finishing eighth in the race.

However, the pace of the #23 Camaro would all come to naught when an engine gremlin popped up about halfway through the 20-minute session this morning.

Although the issue was initially believed as minor as a plug lead coming loose, it was soon apparent that there was a more serious problem under the bonnet.

“Just an engine issue,” Slade told the broadcast.

“We ran an older set of tyres at the start there, as most people would, and then I came in to change onto a better tyre and literally as I got off the throttle to come into the lane it felt a little bit funny.

“I wasn’t sure if my mind was playing tricks on itself, but at the exit of the lane it felt like it was down a cylinder or like a spark plug lead was off.

“The guys had a look at it, they suspected that a lead might have unclipped, went out, felt good for a lap, and then it happened again.

“It’s a bit inconclusive at the moment, so the engine guys are having a look now.”

With only two hours between the end of Practice 3 and the beginning of Boost Mobile Qualifying at 12:50pm, undertaking a potential engine change would be an extremely tight turnaround.

Should he miss qualifying, it would be an unfortunate development in what has been an otherwise strong weekend for the South Australian, with new engineer Andrew Gilliam calling the shots this weekend.

Should he make qualifying, Slade is confident that his base car is still strong, but admits he would’ve liked to verify the changes made to the Camaro overnight.

“Fortunately the car was really strong yesterday in qualy, but it’s a new day, the wind is different and everything else," he said.

“I thought the track may have rubbered up a little bit compared to qualy yesterday, so we made a change to try and counter for that, but we didn’t get a feel for that.

“We’re a little bit on the back foot, but fortunately the car was decent, and fingers crossed if we can solve the issue we can be somewhere there or thereabouts like we were yesterday.”